Cuomo to call Legislature back to Albany in special session to decide control of NYC schools

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will call the Legislature back into special session, a move that allows him to control the agenda. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo plans to call the Legislature back to the Capitol as early as Wednesday to consider a one-year extension of the law giving Mayor de Blasio control of New York City schools, a source said Monday night.

The governor will call the Legislature back into special session, a move that allows him to control the agenda. The Senate and Assembly have to return — but not necessarily take up the legislation he wants them to pass.

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Cuomo is "looking for a clean vote on mayoral control," a source with knowledge of the situation said.

The Legislature ended its regular annual session last week without taking up an agreed-upon bill.

De Blasio had hoped for a multiyear extension of the law that expires Friday. Spokesman Eric Phillips called Cuomo's plan to call a special session for the measure "an important step in the right direction."

The Assembly in May passed legislation that included a two-year extension of the mayoral control law along with the routine extensions of dozens of local county sales and other taxes.

The Senate Republican majority wouldn't go along and instead pushed through three bills that extended mayoral control but tied it to other issues like pro-charter school provisions — something the Assembly Democrats opposed.

Mayor De Blasio had hoped for a multiyear extension of the law that expires Friday. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

The source said Cuomo's special session, which was first reported by The New York Times, will not deal with other issues like de Blasio's push for more speed cameras around schools and Brooklyn Democrat Sen. Simcha Felder's desire for police to be posted outside every city school.

It's unclear whether the expiring local taxes — including the city personal income tax — will be part of the special session, though the Legislature at some point will have to address them, the source said.

One issue that could be taken up separately during the special session is a bill to beef up pension benefits for some police officers, firefighters and members of the New York City Employees' Retirement System, the source said.

A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) had no immediate comment late Monday night.